TRIED 'N' TESTED JB Weld Kwik Weld

(Words and Photos: American Car Magazine, August 2015 issue)

There seem to be more and more of these two-part epoxy resin glues on the market, but arguably JB Weld was the first and best.

This particular product, KwikWeld comes in a split syringe so should, in theory, be a simple, no-mess procedure. Take the syringe, squirt self-measured doses onto a palette or into the special mixing tray on the packaging, stir the two parts together with the included lolly stick, then quickly clue together or fill whatever it is you have to glue or fill. You need to do it quickly as this stuff supposedly sets in minutes.

I say supposedly. Perhaps I’m doing it wrong, or perhaps it’s made out of different stuff from when I was a lad, but this took bloody ages to set. It used to be bulletproof within minutes; you could still leave fingerprints in this after an hour. All I was doing was repairing the wheel on a lawnmower – the captive bolt that attaches the wheel had escaped captivity – and more than an hour down the line it still wasn’t holding the bolt head.

Much later, it had indeed set rock – solid, but this was a long way off the few minutes that the packaging suggested.

Either way, it’s still a must have for the travelling tool box as there are million and one uses for this versatile goo. Just don’t expect to be on your way again quite as quickly and you might think.